Longtime staff member Ann Mayse is leaving SAREP to begin a teaching career in Fresno, Calif. after ten years with the program. Her initial SAREP project was to interview innovative farmers and ranchers from throughout the state about the transition to sustainable agriculture. She combined the interviews with an extensive literature review and personal observations to produce the SAREP publication Sustainable Farming Systems: A Guide to the Transition, a book still highly useful to individuals beginning to make changes in their farming production systems.

After the book was finished, Mayse worked part-time for the California Energy Commission as a project evaluator and part-time for SAREP on a variety of projects. In 1994, she began working for SAREP’s education coordinator David Chaney on the USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program’s Professional Development Program (PDP).

“Ann’s skills were invaluable to me in organizing and conducting three focus groups that set the direction for the program here in California,” Chaney said. She helped write proposals for three SARE-funded PDP projects and then worked for Chaney on the projects. The first two were educational resource binders on cover crops and soil quality. The third is the current pest control adviser education project.

We’ll miss Mayse’s dedication and the friendly tenacity she brought to her work. The school children of Fresno are lucky to have her.